boiler mact technical assistance
TRANSCRIPT
Boiler MACT Technical AssistanceADVANCED MANUFACTURING OFFICE
OverviewOn December 20, 2012, the U.S. Environ-mental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the reconsideration process for its Clean Air Act pollution standards National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Major Sources: Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional Boilers and Process Heaters (known as Boiler Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT)). This rule applies to boilers in a wide range of industrial facilities and institutions. The U.S. Department of En-ergy (DOE) offered technical assistance to ensure that major sources burning coal or oil have information on cost-effective clean energy strategies for compliance, including combined heat and power, and to promote cleaner, more efficient boilers to cut harmful pollution and reduce oper-ational costs. EPA stated in the final rule that existing sources will have three years from issuance of the final reconsideration rule to implement the new requirements, and if needed, may request an additional year. This means that existing sources will have until January 31, 2016 to comply with the rule, or to request time through January 2017.
Background on Standards for Boilers and Process Heaters The final Major Source Boiler MACT rule applies to all fuel types, with significant impact on coal, oil, and process gas fired boilers. A major source is defined as a facil-ity that emits 10 tons per year (tpy) or more of any single Hazardous Air Pollutant, or 25 tpy or more of total Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) – including mercury, non-mercury metals, non-metal inorganics, non-dioxin organics, and dioxins/furans. For its Outreach Program, DOE focused on major source facilities burning coal and/or oil in their boilers.
Photo courtesy of Energy Solutions Center
Resources
“Financial Incentives Available for
Facilities that are Affected by the U.S.
EPA ‘National Emission Standards for
Hazardous Air Pollutants for Major
Sources: Industrial, Commercial, and
Institutional Boilers and Process
Heaters: Proposed Rule’” written by
ICF International for U.S. DOE: http://
www.energy.gov/eere/amo/downloads/
financial-incentives-available-facilities-
are-affected-us-epa-national-emission
For DOE Boiler MACT Technical
Assistance: http://www.energy.gov/
eere/amo/boiler-mact-technical-
assistance-program
U.S. EPA Emissions Standards for
Boilers and Process Heaters and
Commercial/Industrial Solid Waste
Incinerators: http://www.epa.gov/
airquality/combustion/actions.html
Expected Impact on Facilities and InstitutionsEPA estimated that less than one percent of the 1.5 million boilers in the United States would need to take action to meet emissions limits under the final rule. Many are covered by the Area Source Boiler Rule (40 CFR part 63 subpart JJJJJJ) and are located at small sources of air pollut-ants, such as hotels, hospitals, and com-mercial buildings. These sites would need
to conduct periodic tune-ups, and perform a one-time energy assessment; however, the remaining less than one percent are required to meet specific emissions limits.
The Boiler MACT rule was estimated by the EPA to result in $25 to $61 billion in health benefits through reduced exposure to fine particulates. Compliance costs for the major source boilers are estimated to be around $5 billion for capital equip-ment and $1.6 billion for annual operat-ing, maintenance, and monitoring costs. Individual boiler costs will vary depend-ing on the boiler age, size, location, fuel type, and other factors.
DOE Boiler MACT Technical Assistance ProgramDOE currently provides technical as-sistance on CHP technologies to commer-cial and industrial facilities through its seven regional CHP Technical Assistance Partnerships (TAPs). Starting in January 2013, DOE supplemented this effort by providing site-specific technical and cost assistance to the major source facilities affected by the Boiler MACT that are burning coal or oil. Through the CHP TAPs – formerly known as Clean Energy Application Centers (CEACs) – DOE contacted nearly 700 facilities with over 1,500 affected boilers to discuss compli-ance strategies, as well as to provide information on potential funding and financing opportunities.
ADVANCED MANUFACTURING OFFICE
Boiler MACT compliance strategies can include installing emissions control technologies on existing boilers, replacing existing boilers with new natural gas boil-ers, converting existing boilers to operate on natural gas, and replacing the existing boiler with a natural gas fueled CHP system. Natural gas CHP, which is cleaner and more energy efficient than traditional separate heat and power, is a compliance strategy that can have a positive economic return for a facility over time.
Boiler MACT Technical Assistance Program DetailsDOE began the Boiler MACT technical assistance program in February 2012 with a pilot program in partnership with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to provide site-specific techni-cal and cost information to the more than 50 facilities in Ohio affected by Boiler MACT. DOE used the results and feedback on the outreach process in Ohio to scale up the program to the national level. To formulate a list of affected sites throughout the country, DOE began with the EPA Information Collection Rule (ICR) database that was released with the Boiler MACT rule. Using other public and private databases, the DOE affected facilities list contained nearly 700 indus-trial and commercial coal and oil burning facilities around the country.
DOE CEACs contacted each affected facility to explain the program and gauge interest in technical assistance. For sites interested in assistance evaluating their compliance strategies, the CEACs pro-vided site-specific decision tree analyses that described the potential compliance strategies and provided indicators of the economic impact of each. If a site was interested in moving forward with ana-lyzing CHP after review of the decision tree analysis, the CEACs provided a level 1 feasibility analysis.
Evaluating Sites
To aid in outreach, “decision trees” were constructed for each of the affected facilities in
the outreach program. The decision tree is a site-specific spreadsheet with information
about the site’s current boilers (capacity, operating hours, installation year) and cost
information about each of the site’s compliance strategy options (upgrading boilers
with emissions control technologies, converting existing boilers to natural gas, installing
natural gas boilers, and natural gas fueled CHP). After the site was asked to verify the
boiler information, the site was briefed on the various strategies available for complying
with the rule and costs, as calculated in the decision trees.
Boiler MACT Technical Assistance Program ResultsThe results from DOE’s Boiler MACT Outreach Program are promising. Fifty sites are considering CHP after utilizing DOE technical assistance resources. If all of these sites move forward with install-ing CHP, they would add approximately 750 MW of CHP. Three facilities are already moving forward with 71 MW of CHP. Over 270 sites reported they are already in compliance with the rule. Over half of those sites reported they have switched to natural gas, while the remainder reported they have either changed their operating characteristics to avoid being a major source facility or are converting to biomass. Only nine sites reported that they plan to install emissions controls to come into compliance and 74 sites have been permanently closed.
Additional Resources
• U.S. DOE CHP Technical Assistance Partnerships: http://www.eere.energy.gov/manufacturing/distributedenergy/chptaps.html
• Read more about improving boiler and steam system efficiency on the Advanced Manufacturing Office website: http://www.eere.energy.gov/manufacturing/tech_de-ployment/steam.html
• For other information about DOE Boiler MACT Technical Assistance, contact Katrina Pielli, U.S. DOE, [email protected]
• For information about DOE’s CHP Deployment Program, contact Claudia Tighe, U.S. DOE, [email protected]
DOE Boiler MACT Technical Assistance Program Results
Reported Description # of SitesPotential CHP
Capacity (MW)
In Compliance 271 431
Non-Responsive 179 5
Utilized DOE Assistance 37 354
Not Interested in DOE Assistance 119 71
Full CHP Analysis Provided 13 398
Total Sites 619 1,260
For more information, visit:manufacturing.energy.gov
DOE/GO-102012-3562 • Revised May 2014Printed with a renewable-source ink on paper containing at least 50% wastepaper, including 10% post consumer waste.